Archery bow

ABSTRACT

A collapsible archery bow having a handle with removable bow limbs. Each limb has a single block permanently attached thereto. The blocks are manually insertable into notches in the respective ends of the handle and are held therein by a tongue and groove connection and by spring detents positioned in the base of each block. The spring detents engage the upper surfaces of the notches.

United States Patent [191 Griggs [451 July 2, 1974 [54] ARCHERY BOW3,326,200 6/1967 Grable 124/2412 7 7 [75] In entor: Lonn e P. Gr ggs,ack on e Tex. 3,566,853 3/197! Larm l..4/..4 R [73] Assignee: AMFIncorporated, White Plains, Primary Examiner-Richard C. PinkhamAssistant Examiner-William R. Browne [22] Filed: Aug 4 1972 Attorney,Agent, or Firm-George W. Price; Walter L 21 App]. No.: 278,179 ewls [57]ABSTRACT 52 US. Cl. 124 24 R, 124 30 R, 273 Dl .4 Int. F441) 5 Acollapsible archery bow having a handle with re- 58] Field of 30 R 22movable bow limbs. Each limb has a single block perl24/25 Z manentlyattached thereto. The blocks are manually insertable into notches in therespective ends of the [56] References Cited handle and are held thereinby a tongue and groove connection and by spring detents positioned inthe UNITED STATES PATENTS base of each block. The spring detents engagethe 2,426,283 8/l947 Pearson 124/23 R upper surfaces of the notches2,530,446 1l/l950 Beardsley... 3,262,442 7/1966 Grable 124/24 R 2Claims, 7 Drawing Figures mnmm 21914 3.821946 sum 1 or 2 FIG.2

ZNENYED L 2 I974 SHEET 2 OF 2 FIG. 7

ARCHERY BOW This invention relates to an archery bow, and moreparticularly to a collapsible archery bow which can be quickly takenapart or set up without the need for any tools.

Collapsible archery bows are known in the prior art. However, heretoforethey have tended to be complicated or involve loose parts or requiretools.

Briefly, in the invention an uncomplicated collapsible archery bow isprovided which can be quickly manually taken apart or set up without theneed for any tools.

In the accompanying patent drawings FIG. 1 is a side elevation view ofthe assembled bow;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged broken away view thereof;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged and exploded sectional view of the limb to handlejoint or connection;

FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 are side, top and end views respectively of the wedgeblock part of the limb to handle joint or connection; and

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the section line 7-7 of FIG. 2.

The improved archery bow comprises a handle 10 having upper and lowerremovable limbs or arms 11 and 12. The illustrated bow is for a righthanded archer. Handle 10 is provided with a left hand hand-grip 13 andabove grip 13 the handle is cut away or relieved to provide a sightledge or arrow rest 14. The outermost ends of the limbs are strung witha bowstring 15.

The inner ends of limbs 11 and 12 are removably connected to theopposite ends of handle 13 by virtue of dovetailed notches 16 formed inthe handle and complementary shaped wedges 17 attached to the limbs.More specifically, the notches 16 are wedge shaped, and at their bottomsare bounded by a dovetail shaped groove 18. The wedges 17 are shaped fora snug fit in the notches 16. That is to say, they are wedge shaped andat their bottoms are bounded by a dovetail tongue 19. In the inventionthe handle 13 and the wedges 17 are constructed from magnesium andstainless steel respectively and the notches 16 and wedges 17 arecarefully machined or finished to provide the mentioned snug fit.

The assembly of the wedges 17 to the limbs 11 and 12 is best illustratedin FIG. 3. The limbs comprise outer laminations of plastic 20 and wood21 bonded to a wood core 22. A polyethylene gasket 23 is insertedbetween the limb and wedge and the limb is capped by a polycarbonate cap24. The assembly of wedge, gasket, limb and cap is bolted together by apair of bolts 25 and 26.

The cap 24 has a pair of depending bosses 27 and 28 and alignedapertures are formed in the bosses, limb,

gasket and wedge. The bolts and the bottom ends of the apertures in thewedge are threaded so that the four parts of wedge, gasket, limb and capare clamped together by tightening the bolts into the wedges.

The parts are dimensioned so that the bolts have a snug fit in thebosses, and the bosses have a snug fit in limb, gasket and wedges sothat all the parts are lined up properly. However, once the parts shownin FIG. 3 are clamped together this is a final assembly that doesnt haveto be disturbed in order to assemble or disas semble the limbs andhandle. The gasket 23 and cap 24 have a width comparable to the width ofthe limb, see FIG. 7. The wedge 17 is much narrower, so the oppositelateral sides of the bottom ends of the bosses have flats 29 so thatthey match the width of the wedge.

The bow sets up simply by inserting the wedges 17 into the notches 16and then sliding the wedges all the way into the notches. The wedgeswill not accidentally slide out of place since spring biased balldetents 30 are provided on the bottom surface of the wedges which bearagainst the bottom surface of the notches to retain the parts assembled.

It will now be seen that an uncomplicated and quickly manually operatedcollapsible bow is provided. No screws, bolts or pins need to beremoved, nor are any tools required.

What I claim to be my invention is:

1. A collapsible archery bow comprising an elongated handle and a pairof limbs removably connected to opposite ends of said handle, the endsof said handle having an elongated three sided slide notch formedtherein, said notches being aligned lengthwise of said handle and beingopen at the ends thereof corresponding to the outermost extremities ofsaid handle and being closed at their other ends, a slide blockpositioned on one of the ends of each of said limbs, means permanentlyconnecting said blocks to said limbs independent of said handle so as tobe manually removably mounted to said handle solely by inserting saidblocks into the open ends of said notches to a position abutting theclosed ends thereof, and means for retaining said blocks in said notchesduring deflection of said limbs, and said last mentioned meanscomprising cooperative tongue and groove structures formed by saidblocks and notches, respectively.

2. In a'bow, as in claim 1, wherein said tongue and groove structuresare dovetail shaped and formed along opposite sides of said blocks andnotches respectively, and said retaining means further comprising springbiased ball detents mounted in the bottom of said blocks and which areengageable with recesses in the bottom surfaces of said notches.

1. A collapsible archery bow comprising an elongated handle and a pairof limbs removably connected to opposite ends of said handle, the endsof said handle having an elongated three sided slide notch formedtherein, said notches being aligned lengthwise of said handle and beingopen at the ends thereof corresponding to the outermost extremities ofsaid handle and being closed at their other ends, a slide blockpositioned on one of the ends of each of said limbs, means permanentlyconnecting said blocks to said limbs independent of said handle so as tobe manually removably mounted to said handle solely by inserting saidblocks into the open ends of said notches to a position abutting theclosed ends thereof, and means for retaining said blocks in said notchesduring deflection of said limbs, and said last mentioned meanscomprising cooperative tongue and groove structures formed by saidblocks and notches, respectively.
 2. In a bow, as in claim 1, whereinsaid tongue and groove structures are dovetail shaped and formed alongopposite sides of said blocks and notches respectively, and saidretaining means further comprising spring biased ball detents mounted inthe bottom of said blocks and which are engageable with recesses in thebottom surfaces of said notches.